WASHINGTON, D.C. — It's improving. It's better. Americans can be proud of it again. What, you thought we were talking about Congress? We're talking about the National Mall — this city's national park that contains everything from the Washington Monument to the national carousel. After decades of deferred maintenance that caused the Mall to slip into a blowsy, weedy, concrete-crumbling state, it has been whipped into semi-respectable shape in just 30 months. The earthquake-damaged Washington Monument finally reopened May 11, and it looks splendid inside and out. A renovated, more interactive and lively White House Visitors Center officially opened Sept....

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — It's improving. It's better. Americans can be proud of it again.
What, you thought we were talking about Congress?
We're talking about the National Mall — this city's national park that contains everything from the Washington Monument...

If you find the idea of unmanned drones buzzing around in the skies above you just a bit unsettling, well, the National Park Service is with you on that.
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail has put hikers and hobbyists on notice that drones will not be...

After nearly 100 years, the National Park Service holds some of the country's most beautiful and historic places, though it also suffers from an $11 billion backlog of unfunded maintenance and a visitor base that's aging and mostly white. With its...

PINEHURST, Calif. A massive die-off of pine trees in the southern Sierra Nevada caused by beetles attacking drought-stressed trees is turning forests brown and creating a fire tinderbox. From El Portal in Mariposa County to Kernville in Kern...

WASHINGTON — After nearly 100 years, the National Park Service holds some of the most beautiful and historic places in the country, though there's also an $11 billion backlog of unfunded maintenance and a visitor base that's aging and mostly white.
...

Hands torn and bleeding, the second of two men attempting a grueling climb up a half-mile of sheer granite in California's Yosemite National Park cleared one of the ascent's most difficult stretches after days of failed attempts and waiting.
Growing...

National parks will waive entrance fees Saturday through Monday in honor of Presidents Day weekend. It's the longest fee-free period of the year for national parks.
The free admission applies to more than 400 parks nationwide, including Yosemite,...

Next time you go to Yosemite National Park, look for a new and rarely seen visitor: the Sierra Nevada red fox.
Park officials announced Wednesday that cameras set up in the far northern part of the park twice confirmed a sighting of the fox that hasn't...

The elusive Sierra Nevada red fox has been spotted at Yosemite National Park for the first time in nearly 100 years.
“They are extremely cute little animals,” said Yosemite spokeswoman Kari Cobb. “When you see them, they are pretty majestic.”
...

Day after day, the two Americans who completed what had been considered the world's most difficult rock climb bloodied their fingertips, endured bruising falls and balanced their bodies on handholds as small as coins.But while living for more than two...

Kevin Jorgeson, one of two men to successfully free climb Yosemite's Dawn Wall, was clinging to a particularly treacherous stretch of granite when the pain and doubts began to set in.
For days, the professional climber had struggled to move past Pitch...

A pair of Americans completed what had long been considered the world's most difficult rock climb Wednesday, using only their hands and feet to scale a 3,000-foot vertical wall on El Capitan, the forbidding granite pedestal in Yosemite National Park...

Somewhere up on that impossibly vertical rock face, two men were inching toward accomplishing what had never been done before.
Tommy Caldwell, 36, and Kevin Jorgeson, 30, could become the first to "free climb" the Dawn Wall. They are propelling...

Reports of artistic vandalism in 10 national parks in the West have prompted an investigation from the National Park Service, which said it is looking into incidents in five states, including California.
The agency said in an announcement Wednesday...

New York state is best known for the mega-metropolis that bears the same name, but it's also home to a mega-park, one of America's greatest natural wonders: Adirondack Park. As state tourism officials like to point out, the 6 million-acre wilderness...

It's improving. It's better. Americans can be proud of it again. What, you thought we were talking about Congress? We're talking about the National Mall this city's national park that contains everything from the Washington Monument to the national...

The list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (whc.unesco.org) grew to 1,007 in 161 countries in June when 26 sites were added. For travelers, this is a veritable buffet of possibilities of great destinations.
Among the cultural or natural treasures added this...

The family of an avid mountain climber is grieving after the man fell hundreds of feet to his death in Yosemite National Park just hours after his girlfriend accepted his marriage proposal.
Brad Parker, 36, died when he fell from the face of Matthes...

I've driven through this burg of roughly 17,000 souls, about halfway between Vancouver and the skiing and snowboarding resort of Whistler Blackcomb, more than a dozen times. And each trip, I would gaze at the Stawamus Chief, a granite monolith that...

The moment had arrived. That magical wisp of time at sunset when the earth is transformed by golden light and the sky takes on kaleidoscopic colors.
We had been following a trail around Manzanita Lake, one of the most iconic features of California's...